53-year-old inmate found dead at Arkansas jail

A Baxter County jail inmate was found dead early Wednesday, authorities said.

Frank Salvadore Compton, a 53-year-old Harrison man, was found unresponsive by jailers during a cell check shortly before 3:20 a.m., a news release from Baxter County Sheriff John F. Montgomery states.

Montgomery said jailers began CPR, but Compton died at the jail.

Compton had been brought by ambulance to Baxter Regional Medical Center from an address in Marion County shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday, the release states. Authorities said he was discharged hours later, but he remained on the hospital grounds and tried to break into several vehicles.

Mountain Home police arrested Compton on charges of public intoxication and criminal trespass and transported him to the jail at about 8:25 p.m. that night, the sheriff's office said. After booking, Compton was placed alone in a temporary holding cell, and jailers performed routine checks on him until he was found unresponsive.

According to the release, Compton’s body is being sent to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock to determine the cause and manner of his death.

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